This Is The Way It Ends
by PaintParadise
Summary: Set 19 years after 9x24. Callie divorced Arizona leaving Sophia to be raised by the blond doctor, unable to cope with breaking her promise and unwilling to break the most important one: The promise that Arizona was her parent. Sophia realizes as a first year intern that her chief of surgery bears a striking resemblance to the woman who haunts her dreams: A mother she never knew.
1. Ch 1: We Found Each Other In The Dark

AU: I own nothing!

This is the short first chapter of what (I hope to be) a nice long juicy story. I hope anyone who reads enjoys it as much as I enjoy writing it. Rated Mature for later chapters.

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Chapter One: We Found Each Other In The Dark

_When I looked into her eyes, I knew – in that moment my life would never be the same. The way she held her scalpel and the way she leaned over the patients abdomen to ensure every cut was clean, I knew she was mine. I watched her with interest, my focus on the language of her body, the act itself, and everything that I had felt before flooded back with such force that it rendered me completely dumb. This was my baby. She was fully grown with almond shaped eyes and staring with such great pleasure into the cavity of a man she wanted to save. She needed to. I knew it, I saw it, she loved it. Because of you she loved this life. _

_ I gave her away to you. You watched her blossom, you saw her first steps into this adult world, and you watched her rise into being a beautiful young woman. A smart young woman. I couldn't let myself feel that joy with you while in the back of our minds you would be judging me, abhorring me and pushing me so far away. Out of sight, out of mind. I loved you so much, but we couldn't withstand that storm. Our edges frayed and weathered, our castle fell, though we had tried, truly tried, to mend everything. Because we are doctors. That is what we do – we fix, we aim to heal. _

_ Giving you our divorce papers tore my heart to shreds. It sickened me, it made me feel lesser than, and it made the promise I made to you look like nothing more than a silly pipe dream. We had been so sure, so certain in our progress, that when it happened it became such a shock. There was nothing left to do but falter. But, still, I love you. Do you realize what that means? Nineteen years and I still feel the remains of our marriage etched into my soul, my very being, like the essence of myself – what makes me 'me'. _

_ Yours,_

_ Callie Torres_

"I know you." Calliope heard from behind. She turned toward the doorway of the doctor's lounge with surprise etched into her thin mocha features, a pen still hanging loosely in her hand. An athletic looking girl stared back at her with familiar eyes, her own eyes it seemed, filled with confusion and exhaustion, nearly sunken, in the dim light of the lounge. The girl was still in her scrubs and looking disheveled, though she didn't seem to care much of her appearance. The door slipped from the young doctors hand and closed with a dull thud, the gentle click of the lock followed. Callie's expression relaxed, minutely.

From the beginning she knew it was going to be hard. The second the realization had struck her it seemed like an impossible situation. So she had waited. She wasn't going to approach the girl she barely knew and confront her with the facts that had, possibly, been hidden away from her since before she could even remember. Sofia wouldn't have been able to remember her – or so she thought.

"You know me?" The older woman asked in a gentle tone as she leaned back against the table she had previously been standing at, pouring herself over the blank piece of white printer paper. She watched Sofia stand her ground, still as stone, staring at her with investigative tear filled brown eyes.

"I know who you are. Do you know me?" Sofia stepped further into the doctors lounge toward the older raven haired woman. She looked tired, as though she hadn't been able to take a single rest throughout her long shift, but there was still a spark there. Something to drive her onward. It made Callie more concerned than she felt she had the right to be. The soft buzzing of the snack machine called upon her attention and she looked toward it, in hopes that perhaps it would grant her a moment to gather herself.

"Sofia, you need to understand that this is really out of the blue..."

"It's a yes or a no question, Dr. Torres." There it was. The fire that made it ever clearer that Sofia wasn't going to take an excuse. She was a Torres. She had passion. And when she wanted her answers nothing would stand in her way. Callie was cornered. Her gaze bounced back to peer at the young woman standing feet away with her arms folded over her chest. It was an image of herself.

Callie had every reason not to engage Sofia further. She didn't know her life. Her past. She hadn't spoken to Arizona since she had left and she didn't know if Arizona had ever even mentioned her. She simply didn't know a thing. From the moment she'd landed in New York she had made it a point to try and forget, try to forgive, everything. She had made a life for herself, found a few friends, had a few parties. She had made the most of her knowledge and taught her interns how to be great doctors. She had even found love. What could anyone have expected from her? To be miserable? Callie didn't know what Sophia would think. Yet, she decided to give in.

"You're my kid. You're my only kid. I know who you are and I knew you existed for your entire life." Callie's voice was strong as she gazed into her daughter's eyes, watching the pain cross quickly over her angular features. Sofia's lips parted. Her soulful brown eyes fell from Callie and landed somewhere along the navy carpet. She stared at nothing at all, her face betraying the racing thoughts that threatened to spill out of her mouth. Callie made her move. She pushed off the table and walked toward Sofia, the short distance closed within mere moments, and then she lifted her hands to the other woman's shoulders.

"You knew," Sofia's voice rang out loudly, angrily, then Callie felt two foreign hands on her arms, pushing her away. "You knew this entire time?!" The pen dropped to the floor, forgotten, as Callie's fingers curled around Sofia's, she grasped at her hands as the girl began to turn away, possibly to run.

"Sofia, you have to listen to me, I was protecting you. Protecting our family. You don't know the whole story, if any of it." Callie tumbled over her words, her own emotion getting the better of her as large tears began to well in her eyes. _God damn it! _She thought. Then hands tightened around her own. She looked up from them to see Sofia fighting back a sob. There was a second of clarity and it became apparent that her plea had been registered. Sofia wasn't going to run. She was going to want the story.

"There's a story?" The flood gates opened wide as the young girl crumpled like ash in her arms. Calliope sank with her and softly shh'd as the girl cried. She imagined Sofia cried for many reasons, but they had still to be said. Could it be that this could become a new start?

TBC...


	2. Ch 2: Heart's A Mess

This would be chapter two. It's brief, ALTHOUGH there will be a larger morning segment as well. THANK YOU TO ALL THE READERS! I love writing for you and hearing what you have to say on it.

I'm a little awkward. Don't mind it. :)

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Chapter 2: Heart's A Mess

Sofia didn't know what to expect when she pulled in behind her mother's SUV. The neighborhood was nice, the houses were simple, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It was your average run of the mill upper class neighborhood. She sat in her car for a few seconds, watching as Callie got out of her vehicle then proceeded to search for her keys in her purse. She seemed so calm. Inside Sofia wanted to scream. _Why did you leave me?! How could you leave me?! _There was so much she didn't know and had never realized. She had always questioned why she didn't look like her blonde blue eyed 'other' mother. Especially, when she remembered a brown eyed raven haired and mocha skinned woman who spoke to her softly, telling her how incredibly loved she was. If she was that loved, then why leave? It must have been bad. Sofia grabbed the door handle and opened the door to her Jeep. She exited the vehicle, looking up at the stark white two story house with mild interest as she pushed the door closed.

"Are you coming?" She heard Callie call from the entrance way. Sofia's head snapped in her direction.

"Yeah." The young woman called back. She locked her car with the press of a button then walked toward Callie.

A few steps led her into a small porch. Sofia looked around expecting to find something that would tell her more about the woman leading her inside. She found little. It was a nicely decorated home although it barely appeared to be lived in. It was clean. Incredibly clean. Yet, she could see remnants of dust along side tables and the mantle. Pictures suddenly caught her eye.

"Can I offer you something to drink? Something to eat?" She heard Callie ask followed by the sound of the woman throwing her purse down on the kitchen counter. Afterward she heard a rustling and the soft clinks of glasses lightly hitting against one and other.

"Just some coffee or water would be fine." Sofia replied while casting glances at the faces within the frames. Her brow furrowed. One face she could recognize, the other she could not. A blond woman with blue eyes stared back at her, smiling. Callie and the woman embraced, her mother's lips pressed lightly to the foreign woman's cheek. The photographs seemed to capture tender moments between the pair but the woman was no where to be found. She was so engrossed in looking at the pictures that she didn't notice when Callie approached to stand in the doorway leading into the living room from the kitchen, two glasses of ice water in her hands. After a short pause, Callie announced her presence.

"That's Erica, Erica Hahn. She was a doctor at New York-Presbyterian." Sofia quickly angled toward where she could hear the voice, momentarily gripped by surprise as her own little world fell 'way. She took a step toward Callie who met her with the glass outstretched in offering.

"Thank you," Sofia said in a softer tone as her gaze bounced back to the pictures. "It looked like you two were close."

"We were. We were married, actually." Callie's voice seemed distant to Sofia's ear. She turned and watched her mother sit down on the sofa, crossing a leg and cradling her glass in a hand as the other found the edge of the couch arm she rested on. It brought forth a series of questions that Sofia begged to ask though she was filled with trepidation. She was thankful when Callie decided to further explain while meeting her gaze.

"When I moved here I wasn't expecting to find anything other than a job and maybe a few friends to share company with, there wasn't any reason why I chose New York in particular," The older woman began before taking a sip of her cold glass of water – afterward she tossed a glance at the pictures. "Erica was here and we had dated before, a long while before I met your mom. Things were different then. We started seeing each other again after a few years and then boom, we fell in love."

"Where is she now?" Sofia asked as she rounded the coffee table. She sat herself down on the couch cross legged and facing Callie, her own glass cradled in her hands. A flash of sadness swept over the Latina woman as she looked to her daughter, though it was brief.

"She passed away four years ago in an ambulance collision. Some dummy didn't get his ass out of the way in time and a half ton truck t-boned the vehicle." Callie explained simply.

The silence that followed wasn't an uncomfortable one. Sofia had so much information floating around in her skull that it made it difficult to decide what it was she really wanted to know. Was Callie married to her mom, as well? Were they happy together? What happened between Callie and her dad? When did she know she wanted out of that life, out of their family? For a while Sofia stared into the depth of her water glass as she watched the ice float and bob at the surface of the drink. Callie always seemed too put together, although, she also appeared so incredibly private. She had watched her for weeks now in and out of surgery. Her mother was the chief of surgery, after all, they were always in close proximity – however, that could have been Callie's doing. From the day she began her internship the older woman had always made her feel so very secure and certain in her abilities, but she wasn't sure if she'd be able to handle this as gracefully as she thought she would have over the passed few days.

"I'm very sorry for your loss." Sofia finally spoke, her voice betraying the tension she was beginning to feel rise from within her. A gentle snort shook her from the thoughts as her gaze redirected itself at her mother who was still peering across the dimly lit living room at the photographs on the mantle.

"Believe me, it's probably better off for her. I'm a lightening rod for unfortunate events." Sofia was momentarily surprised by the bluntness of the woman sitting on the other end of the couch. Her brows shot up toward her hair line and her mouth fell slightly open. She didn't imagine Callie to be that... Well, dark. Perhaps, self deprecation was genetic.

"Anyways, that's not what we're really here to talk about, is it?" Sofia heard Callie say while she was taking a long sip of her ice cold water. Bringing the glass back down she gently shook her head.

"You're right, it's not." Sofia's expression sobered somewhat as she replied. She felt herself relax with her back against the arm of the couch, the impending conversation truly relevant to her interest. She had always, for some reason, hoped that this moment would come, there were so many loose ends to the stories her mom had told her that she couldn't help but to doubt her. She watched Callie look back upon her with apology written across her features.

"This is going to take a while."

Callie felt herself begin to sink back into the memory of her relationship with Arizona once again. There had been so many ups and so many downs. The last two years of her relationship had turned so sour that she couldn't bear the thought of rehashing all of the details of it to her daughter. Instead, she began where it really got rough. The plane crash. All the while she couldn't tear her eyes away from the younger woman who sat, alert, and ready to listen to it all.

"Your mom and I had been together for around four years when she was in a plane crash. We had you a while before that, so, you were about one. Maybe a little more," Callie grasped to get all of the facts as straight as she could while offering enough detail for her daughter to get a vivid picture of the situation. "Your mom and a slew of other, very talented, doctors were on the plane when it went down. Mark, your dad, was also included in the list of casualties." Carrying on with the story, Callie told Sofia that they were stuck in the middle of the wilderness for days, she had been waiting at home for her wife but she had never shown up. Worried and wide awake, she decided to go down to the hospital to see if there had been any information, hoping that some word had been sent in that the flight had been fine or that the surgery was taking longer than expected. They hadn't received any word in five hours.

"When we got a call that told us the plane had crashed, I didn't know what to do with myself. I was a mess. You were all I could think about, and Arizona, whether or not you'd have a mom coming home or if she was dead out there. And Mark. He loved you so much, I've never seen a dad so happy to have a baby girl in his life." Callie felt her cheeks grow heated with emotion as her eyes began to sting with tears – yet, they wouldn't fall. It wasn't the time or the place for her to release them.

"They were flown to a near by hospital then back to Seattle. Your mom's leg was badly mangled and housed an infection that was going to kill her, she had sepsis, but she made me promise that I wouldn't let them amputate the leg..."

"You obviously broke that promise." Sofia interjected immediately. Callie watched as a light bulb seemed to go off above Sofia's head of long dark curls. Clearly, Arizona's opinion of what a promise meant hadn't changed.

"I did. We never recovered."

It was as much of the story as Callie felt comfortable with divulging, for the time. If Sofia had any further questions then she would have been more than happy to answer them, but, for the moment, the information needed to marinate. It needed to sink in. Watching as Sofia rubbed her face, as though attempting to wipe the exhausted look from her chiseled features, Callie waited for her to respond. A long yawn was granted.

"I know we're not family, and I don't want any special treatment from you because, for all intents and purposes, you are still my boss... But can I please sleep on your couch? I just don't have the energy to drive myself home right now and I still want to talk about this in the morning." Sofia asked while holding the back of her hand against her lips, to stifle the offending yawn that had parted them.

"It would be the least I could do." Callie replied as she lifted herself from where she had been sitting, before walking into the kitchen to dispose of her glass. She was surprised that the young woman had been as accepting of all that was said – though, despite herself, she thought of Mark. Mark was a similar person. Quick to ask, quicker to accept. Unless he was full of doubt or mistrust. Callie stood at the sink for a moment longer, peering out the window to her back yard. It was dark, the middle of the night by then, so she glanced over at the clock.

_**3:22 a.m.**_

The flashing red numbers stared back at her and made her wonder where the time had gone. She shuffled from the kitchen to the front hallway to find some fresh sheets and a blanket from the linen closet to bring to Sofia, but by the time she had done this, and wandered back into the living room, the young woman was curled up, asleep, on her couch. An uncomfortable feeling washed over the older Latina woman as she stood stone still and near by. Any maternal instinct she may have had was squished in the instant it was felt, like an ant beneath her shoe. It wasn't right, or real.

"Good night, Sof." Callie murmured while tossing the sheets on the comfy chair in the corner of the living room, before covering her grown daughter with the patchwork blanket still in her hands.

Sofia waited until she heard the footsteps fade, until she was certain Callie was locked away in her bedroom upstairs. When the creaking floor boards fell silent, she opened her eyes and slowly rose into a sitting position, her hands deftly searching through the dark beside the couch for her purse. Her fingers found the leather and the zipper to open it, where inside she fumbled once more to locate her cell phone. When it was found she dialed quickly then held the phone up to her ear. Sofia was only able to reach a voice mail recording.

_"This is Arizona Robbins. Please leave your name, number and time you've called and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks! Bye."_

"Mom, it's me, Sofia. Would you call me tomorrow on your lunch break? If I don't pick up right away, I'll call you right back, just call me. Okay? I love you... I'll talk to you soon."


	3. Ch 3: Nineteen

Alright, first things first, I would like to state that this little project of mine was born from MY thoughts, and MY personal ideas of the couple and their child after episode 9x24. I love the characters, I love the way the show has written their story and I, also, love the fact that sites like allow us as writers to play with them. Make them our own. Despite how real or how unrealistic the settings and situations may seem. Someone is making an effort to write it, putting some passion into their work and loving what they do. So when I receive reviews such as this:

:This is the most unrealistic piece of crap I've ever read. Firstly Callie  
would NEVER EVER leave her daughter not in a million years. Next off Callie  
and Erica? Please? Can you not think of anything more original? Like Callie  
would go there again after fleeing from what Arizona done then to walk into  
the arms of someone who hurt her previous to Arizona.

I assume you are planning on having Sofia turn against Arizona once she finds  
out her mother cheated? Some stupid crappy SL like that? Arizona raised her  
clearly all these years - Her cheating when Sofia was a baby has nothing to do  
with anything at all - at least where Sofia as an adult is concerned.

This is just ridiculous:

Do I get offended? No. The truth is, someone must have felt pretty damn passionate to even bother writing a review in the first place or read up to the second chapter. If you didn't care, you wouldn't review. Am I right? I like to provoke a reaction, I want you to tell me that its 'unrealistic crap', I want you to feel something when you read my work. Now, do I want you to assume what this story is going to be? No. That I may get a little miffed by.

I don't know what the future will bring for this story, but will it be utterly predictable? Probably not. And if it is, then I am truly sorry. But what I am not sorry for is writing this piece of work. I love it.

For those of you who read this and enjoy it, I thank you. I thank you for any support you have to offer whether you write a review, or simply silently enjoy reading it and choose to keep your comments unseen. I respect that.

Thank you to all of you who read, write, and enjoy making this site a true splendor to explore.

Sincerely,

PaintParadise

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Chapter 3: Nineteen

In the morning, as the light danced through the windows onto walls and across Sofia's face, she awoke. Her eyes slowly opened and adjusted to see that she wasn't in her apartment. It hadn't been some insanely confusing dream. She pushed the blanket off and rose to sit at the edge of the couch while suppressing a yawn, her arms stretching above her head. Suddenly, she was thinking more clearly and wide awake, all the words her mother had spilled the night previous swam in the pool of her mind. Was she furious? No. Was she curious? Yes. It made some kind of sense even though it remained a huge gray area of her life – A promise to a person was everything. It meant a huge deal. But Callie had made the right decision... She believed.

As she tried to picture a life without her blond mother, finding it difficult to imagine, Sofia lifted herself from the couch. She walked into the kitchen after grabbing her glass from the coffee table, then peered around for the sink. There was no sugar coating any of what had happened, Sofia deduced, but the complete omission of the information was very unexpected. Of all the lessons her mother had taught her while she grew, one always rang well above the rest: Tell the truth and, when you make any promise, follow through. So why was she so conflicted? She didn't know what to think.

_**-BuzzBuzz- -BuzzBuzz-**_

Sofia heard her cell phone go off on the coffee table, the gentle vibrations audibly sounding over the hard surface of glass in the living room. Her eyes quickly shot to the time on the stove, 7:40 a.m., it wasn't yet time for her mother to be calling on her break so she turned to walk briskly back into the other room. Nearly clipping the edge of the tv stand with her hip as she passed, still being pretty unused to the new environment, the young woman reached for her phone and answered it without looking at the caller ID on the screen.

"Hey?" She greeted quietly and hurriedly, almost certain by the time she picked up the call it would have gone to voice mail.

"Hey, stranger." A rich, deep female voice filled Sofia's ear, the sound of which forced her eyes to close in relief. She felt the corners of her lips curl into a smile while she absentmindedly slipped a hand into her jeans pocket.

"It's you." She said lightly while angling to return back to the kitchen, planning to refill her empty glass once again.

"It's me. I haven't heard from you in about three days now, so I just wanted to see if you were alive or dead." Sofia heard Zola state as the sink gurgled to life. Had it been days? Had she really been that withdrawn and in her head to realize she'd been forgetting to call? _Damn.. _She thought. Before having the chance to reply, Sofia heard the floor above her head begin to creak under the weight of the other woman in the house. Her eyes shot to the spot that it seemed to emit from.

"Zoe, I love you for checking up on me, but I have to go. I'll call you back in a few hours. I'm alive, I'm good, just in the middle of something." Sofia said through a small smile to her friend on the line. A brief sigh from Zola met her ear but, at the same time, she could almost see the dark skinned woman offering a nod with it.

"Alright, I'll be waiting. If I don't pick up right away, I'll call you right back. We're busy in the pit today."

The pair their good bye's to one and other then Sofia closed her flip phone with a click. The same hand reached to turn off the water tap as she waited for the older woman to make her appearance. The creaking from above continued for a short while before she could hear the sounds of bare feet against cool hard wood as her mother descended the stairs to the main level. In moments, just after Sofia had leaned back against the counter to rest, Callie walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning." Sofia greeted through a small half smile as she met Callie's gaze. The older woman nodded and offered a similar smile in return.

"Did you sleep fine?" The raven haired chief asked while walking passed her daughter and towards the coffee maker. Sofia watched as Callie busied herself with the task of grabbing a coffee filter and the carton of Folgers out of the freezer.

"I slept alright, you?" Sofia watched as her mother angled her head to peer back at her, just for a moment.

"I slept well." Was the warm reply the younger woman received in return to her question. Sofia gave a small nod of the head then took a sip of her water. When Callie's hands stopped their fussing over the coffee maker, the woman turned to mirror her daughter's position.

"You still want to talk about some things?" Callie asked Sofia, as she folded her arms over her chest casually and leaned against the kitchen counter.

"I just want to know why you couldn't stick around, why you couldn't 'recover', as you put it," Sofia stated honestly. "I want to know everything, I guess." She was truly curious. Whatever happened, happened. There was no other way for it to turn out, perhaps. But still the sinking feeling that more had yet to be said was there, sitting, in the depth of her stomach like an anvil waiting to drop. She watched Callie watching her with large brown eyes filled with some unknown emotion. She couldn't read Callie like she could read her mom.

"Your mom and I gave it our best shot after the amputation. I tried to be gentle with her and give her the space she needed. It didn't work. I tried to reason with her and show her some tough love, urging her to talk to me but she wouldn't. The promise I made meant everything to her, at the time, leaving nothing for me to do to make it right. The rest you're just going to have to talk to your mom about. Someday." Callie explained pointedly. It was clear by the look on her face that she wanted to be able to give more, offer more... However, she may have felt that it wasn't her place to say. Sofia's brow furrowed.

"Did you ever try to see me again?" She then asked as the smell of hot coffee began to filter in through her nostrils, exciting her senses. Callie's expression grew a bit amused.

"I made our friend, Bailey, call me with updates after I changed my number. She called me every week for forty eight months, then the calls started coming ever other week," Her mother said as she turned to grab a few mugs from behind in a cupboard. "Then they grew less and less. I always had you in my thoughts, I was always worried about you, but I knew Arizona was going to be an amazing mother so I had no doubt that you were safe with her."

Sofia pushed off the counter and walked to Callie's fridge to find some milk or cream. She opened the door with her mother's gaze following her every movement. When she bent down to look inside the fridge she was surprised to find that it was nearly barren. A half a brick of cheese, mostly condiments, a few bottles of wine and some old take out cartons stared back at her.

"There should be some coffee cream in the door." She heard her mother say. She was right. Next to three bottles of Tabasco sauce she found the carton of cream and took it from the thin shelf the door provided.

"Don't eat much?" Sofia asked as she pushed the fridge door closed, before stepping to stand beside Callie at the counter with the carton in hand.

"I don't eat _here_ much. I grab a bit of breakfast before work, grab dinner after work. I lead a boring life." The older woman replied while sliding a mug of coffee toward Sofia.

"You realize I'm going to have to take some time off, maybe a weekend coming up, to go to Seattle, right?" There was no use in beating around the bush with Callie. If it wasn't obvious that she wanted to get the matter resolved as quickly as possible, then she'd make the older doctor see.

"Do you think that's wise," Callie questioned while grabbing some sugar cubes from the cupboard above the coffee pot. "Do _you _realize how insanely pissed your mom is going to be that all of this has come out of the wood work?"

"I don't care if she's angry," Sofia countered bluntly, her head angled to look at the woman standing at her side – Callie too peered over at her with surprise etched into her features. "I love my mom. I love her so much because she is an amazing woman. But she does have faults and flaws just like you or I. I'm neutral. Like the Swiss. If she's mad, she's mad. There's nothing I can do. Though I still deserve to know all the facts. I'd like her to open up to me about this."

"That's going to be hard for your mother to do. If she didn't tell you a single thing about me or about our marriage for all this time, then she's going to have a hard time talking about it now." Callie told Sofia in a clear tone, her gaze bouncing back to the mug of coffee she was stirring.

"Still, I know my mom well enough to know she had her reasons. She'll tell me. I have a feeling she's known it's coming for a while but not like this." Sofia too glanced back down into the creamy swirling liquid held in the black mug set in front of her. Over the passed night and thinking back upon her life Sofia had realized there were many moments where Arizona had almost let everything slip, but stopped herself. She could remember vividly an instance where she, as a child, had found a large box in the back of her mother's closet. Pictures, clothes, miscellaneous items had been taken out of her small hands and placed back in the cardboard box. Her mother's words rang in her ear like a distant memory. _These are not toys, honey. These are mommy's private things. _If she still had them, it had to have meant something.

"Take as much time as you need, Sof. Work will always be waiting for you when you get back, I'll try to make sure you don't fall behind." Callie's words shook Sofia from her reverie, forcing her to look back into the older woman's eyes. She, for some reason unknown, did trust Calliope. She trusted her to tell her the truth of the matter, to be there for her if she needed it – there was something in the woman's eyes that told her that she was safe in her presence. Maybe from all the time spent guilty and waiting for the sky to fall. Well, they were there then, together, and the sky hadn't crushed them both.

"You know, I had dreams when I was little of this woman who looked like me, holding me, singing to me. I know it was you, I always knew you were out there. But as I got older I thought maybe it had all just been a lie I had been telling myself. Now that I know for sure I wasn't crazy.. I'm relieved," Sofia told her mother while her fingers curled around the handle of her mug. "Either way, whatever my mom says, I still want to know you and I want you to be around. I'm old enough to make that decision for myself."

The pair of women shared a silence together, sipping their coffees and leaning against the counter. There wasn't much more that needed to be said between them at the time. Much more would unfold before them, maybe bringing them closer or pushing them apart, but they had still found one and other. Just because it wasn't the perfect mother/daughter connection that dreams were made of didn't make it any less real. It was real. It was new. It was going to be an adventure and Sofia felt confident that no matter how upset her mom was when she finally confided in her the events of the past few days, she would be understanding. Eventually.

Meanwhile in Seattle, a dark skin doctor leaned into the doctors lounge to flag the attention of her attending.

"Arizona, I got a hold of Sofia this morning. She said she's doing fine, but return her call anyway." Zola told the blond doctor who was feeding the snack machine in the corner of the room with quarters. Arizona tossed a glance and a smile at the doorway.

"Thank you, Zoe. I really appreciate that. She's driving me crazy with all these two second phone calls, maybe I'll get a whole five minutes for a change." The blond woman laughed a bit through her words, yet worry lines still etched themselves at the corner of her eyes. Since her daughter had left for New York the calls grew fewer and fewer. She understood that being a doctor meant dedicating your life to your practice, constantly working to improve your technique and patient skills, though she had hoped they'd at least have had a few more longer conversations before Sofia was swamped. Unless she had found someone.

"No problem, let me know if you need anything else. I got some charting to do, so, we'll catch up later."

"For sure." Arizona replied as she leaned down to grab the bag of potato crisps from where they had dropped. Zoe nodded to no one and took her leave of the blond doctor, leaving Arizona alone to her thoughts. The woman took her bag of chips to a table and sat back down in front of her lap top, researching as always, while she took her lunch break. She dug around in her pocket for her cell phone then speed dialed Sofia before bringing the phone up to her ear; the message left the night previous still playing in the back of her mind. Sofia didn't sound like herself, maybe there was someone new in her life...

TBC...


	4. Ch 4: Bedroom Hymns

My apologies for my hiatus, things have been crazy busy! Though I know this particular chapter is a little short, I shall be updating with another within the day. Or, perhaps, at 2 in the morning. Not sure.

Hope you enjoy!

PaintParadise

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Chapter Four: Bedroom Hymns

Being a mother was a full-time job. Arizona had worked, cooked, cleaned, raised a child while juggling her personal life alone for nearly twenty years. Now, her child was grown. She was again truly alone, and the empty nest was threatening to swallow her completely. The thought of being a singular entity without having a child at home both scared and exhilarated her, though the fear had begun to outweigh her excitement. Now every day was a struggle to not worry about her daughter states away and working in a city she barely knew. She trusted Sofia to make the right choices and to be everything she could possibly be in her new internship; Arizona believed she had raised her daughter well enough to take comfort in the fact that Sofia was level headed woman. And she wasn't alone in that feeling, not when Alex, Meredith, Derek and Bailey had a huge hand in helping her to accomplish the task. They weren't the most conventional family, but they were a family all the same.

Countless nights Arizona had come home to find Alex sleeping on the floor at the foot of Sofia's bed, just in case she needed anything or awoke from a nightmare as she slept. She had watched the, once abrasive, man transition into being a part time caregiver to her child, helping to support her in their time of need. There was, of course, a period of time when Arizona could barely look at Sofia without thinking about Calliope. Her large chocolate brown eyes, her tanned skin and her head of beautiful long dark hair brought back so many memories, so many visions of days where she'd wished she had done so many things differently.

"Hey, Mom." Arizona heard as she balanced her cell between her shoulder and ear. She grabbed her bag of chips absently and opened it.

"Hey honey! I got your message, how are you doing?" She asked before popping a chip into her mouth. Though she couldn't see it, Sofia whispered her apologies over the crunching in her ear before slipping from the kitchen to the living room - even if for only just a semblance of privacy as she talked to her blond mother.

"I'm doing alright, work is good. How are you?" The crispness of her daughter's voice, the controlled tone Arizona could hear, made her wonder for a brief moment.

"Yeah? Good. Things are moving along here at a rather quick pace, I've got Zola doing a lot of my leg work right now," Arizona explained. "Are you sure everything's alright?" Expecting to hear a quick 'Of course!' or, perhaps, even a 'Yeah, doing fantastic!', Arizona was concerned when her question was met with a short silence. For a good few moments Sofia remained quiet on the other end while the blond sat staring out the window at the gray Seattle sky.

"I'm coming home."

"Are you okay?" The pair voiced simultaneously once the pressure to say something, anything, became far too intense to ignore. Arizona's face briefly scrunched in confusion.

"You're coming home? From New York? That's crazy talk, it's only been seven months," Arizona exclaimed in a somewhat worried tone while her confused features shifted to express her concern. "Has something happened? Is someone bothering you?" The blond woman felt something turn sour in the pit of her stomach. The idea that some body out there had been giving Sofia a hard time made her heart drop.

"No, no. Nothing like that. I'm just coming home for a weekend to recharge my batteries. I miss you guys." Sofia's voice warmed somewhat, making Arizona's worry ebb away until she felt utterly relieved. Beginning to relax once again, the older woman shifted her gaze down at the front of her navy scrubs and picked off a few pieces of lint.

"I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions, Fee. I got a little carried away. You'll totally understand when you have kids someday," She told her girl as she smoothed down the fabric on her abdomen, before tossing the open bag of chips on the table for the time. "You know, I think Bailey misses you the most. She's been a monster for weeks, especially after Tucker left for Nebraska." Hearing her daughter laugh on the other end, Arizona smiled to herself.

"Well, I'll make sure to take a trip down to the lab when I get back there. I have to go though, work stuff, I just wanted to give you the heads up before I'm on your door step."

"Okay, Fee. Just give me a call when you know what time I should send someone to pick you up, or I can come get you. I love you."

The two said their farewells to one and other then ended the call. Arizona put her phone down on the table and gazed at it for a few minutes as she replayed the conversation with Sofia in her head. She was coming home. It felt strange to think about, as she was positive she was never going to see her daughter again once she had left. It was a horrible thought and a completely irrational fear, however, one Torres woman had already slipped away. Even now she had to control herself into believing what, in her core, she had such a hard time to take as the truth. Sofia wasn't Callie, she was a product of the woman's genetics – but not the woman herself. She'd come home.

"How did that go?" Callie asked her daughter when she returned to the kitchen. Sofia's, now cool, coffee sat on the edge of the counter across from her mother, so she folded her arms over her chest, cell still in hand, and situated herself there.

"It went alright, she has no idea what's coming and that worries me. But I'm sure she'll be just fine." The younger woman responded thoughtfully as she gazed out the kitchen window to the back yard. It was small yard with one small gravel path leading to the shed in the far left hand corner, only accessible by the thin and winding walkway . Flowers nestled tightly in beds sprouted inches from the ground in an array of colors, though they seemed to had not been attended to for a period of time. Sofia didn't have to look at Callie to know that she was being silently appraised. Heat radiated over her cheeks and down the gentle slope of her neck, eyes boring into her skin.

"There's going to be a hell of a storm when you get back to Seattle, you know."

"I know."

TBC...


End file.
